In 1969 the fifth Beatle was heroin

In this article, Kenneth Womack, author of a two-volume biography of the life and work of Beatles producer George Martin, clamis that John's heroin addiction was the reason for The Beatles break-up.
Do you think he has a point?
In 1969 the fifth Beatle was heroin: Lennon's addiction took its toll

 

I'd say more a symptom of realizing he had to leave but not quite bringing himself to do it for a year, ten months or so.....or it seemed that way.

 

I mean, no.

However, from what I gather he was a pretty terrible human outside of his career in the late 60s anyway. If the story regarding Hey Jude has any truth... well, that kind of sums it up for me really.

 

In 1969 the fifth Beatle was a heroine

 

No it wasn't, his name was Stig and he hated black pudding.

 

It is not accurate to say that Womack is claiming Lennon's heroin abuse was The Reason for the break-up. He's suggesting it was a factor, among several other factors.

I don't really agree it was a significant factor myself. I think that while Lennon's heroin use did contribute to tension and discord among the bandmates, it wasn't the root cause of his desire to leave the band, and it seems likely he would have decided he wanted to leave regardless. Perhaps if he hadn't been so messed up on smack he might have even decided to leave sooner.

It's notable that Womack makes an error in the following passage:
"But the composer’s triumph over the drug would be dishearteningly short-lived. By the time he debuted the song for Dylan a few days later, he was snorting heroin yet again. Lennon later recalled that he and Dylan “were both in shades and both on f&&king junk.” He knew that it would take much more than a chair and a rope, admitting that “I was nervous as sh!t.”

Regardless of whether Lennon was using again after writing "Cold Turkey," his comments about he and Dylan being "both on f&&king junk" and being "nervous as sh!t" were a reference to their time together in 1966 (the "limo scene" in Eat the Document). He was not talking about their meeting in 1969. This is clear from his full comments (in the 1970 Rolling Stone interview) which I've transcribed below:

********************************************
Wenner: When was the last time you saw Bob?

Lennon: He came to our house with George when I'd written “Cold Turkey.”

Ono: And his wife.

Lennon: And his wife. Yeah, and we were just, I was just trying to get him to record, he'd... put him on piano for “Cold Turkey” to make a, a rough tape but his wife was pregnant or something and... you know... she didn't... and she... they left, you know. But he’s calmed down a lot now, you know, than what he was. We, I just remember we were both in shades and both on f&&king junk, and all these freaks on us and Ginsberg and all those people. I was nervous as sh!t, in London, when he came, you know.

Wenner: You were in that movie with him.

Lennon: I don't know what... oh yeah yeah... I’ve never seen it. I'm in it. Yes. Frightened as hell.

 

That must have been right after Bob had played at the Isle of Wight, August 31, 1969.

Chris O'Dell: “Then John Lennon asked how we were getting back and ... and the guy I was with had worked for them too and said uh ... well we're going to take the train. He said no, fly with us. So we got on their little plane and flew back to London.

We smoked very good hashish more than likely were just kind of passing this joint around and suddenly I just got very paranoid and thought for sure the pilot was getting as high as I was and that for some reason my imagination was that his idea would be to just fly straight up. So I was convinced he was going to fly straight up into the sky. And while that was happening the plane started actually hitting some turbulence and then John and Yoko started singing Hari Krishna, the Hari Krishna chant and then I thought oh now we are in trouble.

So we just chanted our way to the earth basically until we landed and it was like oh, OK. And I thought well if I die here at least I'll be on the front page.”

 

The article begins with an update on today's opioid crisis and statistics, and then pivots to 1968-69. Is the point that today's opioid crisis broke up the Beatles?

It just read like an attempt to make the breakup...topical. I'm sure it didn't help matters, but the fifth Beatle? I don't think so.

 

Ah I get it now...Paul liked coke hence

The white album.

Oh yeah I forgot its actually just self titled with white cover but still..

 

well one account says that Yoko got him hooked on heroin saying it was cold medication. i find that believable.

 

John knew what heroin was before he started his full-time relationship with Yoko in 1968. He was hanging out with Robert Fraser at least as early as 1966. Not sure if he partook of it back then, but he was around people who did it and my guess is that he likely snorted a bit just to see what it was like.

Regardless, Yoko didn't fool him into becoming hooked on H. It was a mutual thing between the two of them.

 

It was probably more a symptom of John being unhappy about being a Beatle and wanting to leave.

And I don't either understand why the author references the current drug epidemic, what does it have to do with John Lennon? Not an impressive peace of typing.

 

Just another thread in a place where every day random posters dig at Lennon over and over and over. Some of you get off on it for sure- it's now for sport, not for info. We all know already so it's to drill it in our heads like that therapy Lennon never did.

I think a lot of us think the Beatles broke up at the right time. There were at least 15 reasons for the breakup, puzzle pieces loosening from one another.

Dwindling their complicated breakup into one item to make some money with an article on the Beatles that doesn't take the whole picture into account is a simple man's game.

Drugs are linked to mental health so if Lennon had a mental issue, we should forgive and not trash.

 

Does this mean that I won't have to read Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Later Years, 1966–2016?
After all, it is paid for and currently sits in The Pile™.

 

Exactly. John Lennon was well versed in drugs and was much too headstrong and intelligent to get tricked into snorting the most hardcore drug on the planet. He loved using and experiencing new types of experiences that drugs can offer but as anyone in that world will tell you Heroin is at the top of the Do Not Try list. At some point john made a conscious, informed decision to move forward with trying it. Heroin isn't a dip your toe in the water drug like pyschs, coke or amphetamine pills. Different level of physical commitment is required after just a few weeks of use.

 

That’s a funny way of spelling Billy Preston.

 

John Lennon turned into an awful person, that is a fact you can’t deny.

 

Yeh, exactly. I did enjoy both of his George Martin books, so I don't think he's a slacker. But it felt weird reading it.

 

If you look at my posts, I never really get defensive in favor of anyone and usually I feel like I didn't know these musicians anyway so why care so much. But I think John is different because he was murdered. I don't know what more punishment he could have been given by the world.

And because we all are big Beatle fans, we know all the nasty facts. So why rehash? For kicks - we're all here to talk music but people can't resist the salacious side. We have a National Enquirer/Celeb Gossip E! News trigger in our brain that gets us off in watching a car crash or watching the man who formed the most famous band of all time have childhood problems manifest into poor behavioral choices.

So what of all the others? Why doesn't Eric Clapton who helped "break up" numerous bands, was on H, was abusive, etc. etc. - why doesn't his behavior get mentioned on every thread he's on?

Yes he had a bad side. I admit it no problem.

 

Can we at least question that "fact" or ask where you got it?

 

Turned into? The "I annoint thee David" guy didn't turn into anything. He was already there. Paul talks about this endlessly these days, and how he forgave much of it because he shared the pain of loss John had. It just manifested differently for them.

 

Very ordinary article that contributes nothing of any insight whatsoever to the topic of The Beatles and drugs. This might not be the author's best trajectory for future research. Reads like a tabloid writer trying to get deep into the nitty gritty.

 

I'm denying it. These threads are onerous.

 

And Yoko makes 5.

 

He was kind of awful already, beating Cynthia, having an affair with Yoko, and neglecting his son.